ManhattanHenge!

Manhattanhenge! Also known as 'Manhattan Solstice' took place this last Sunday; and while it's one of my favorite quirks/phenomenon of the city, it passed without much fuss. Well, without any fuss on 78th and %th Avenue. We were busy coughing and hacking and chasing the dog who avoids his walking harness like a naughty naked toddler avoiding his training pants. How many grown men does it take to catch a greased-lightning fast pug? More than two most days.

Anydoggy, Manhattanhenge is a semiannual occurrence in which the setting sun aligns with the east–west streets of the main street grid of Manhattan. The term is derived from Stonehenge where, for those unfamiliar with it, the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices. It was coined in 2002 by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. It applies to those streets that follow the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which laid out a grid offset 28.9 degrees from true east–west. And if all of that sounds too smarty-pantsy to come from my keyboard, it is. I copied it from Wikipedia. All I know if that it's cool and that twice per year, I can walk out onto any cross (East-West) street in Manhattan and see the sun set. Fancy, huh? Like the photo? I swiped from a more proactive Manhattanite.

Anyway, George Steinbrenner is dead, and I don't feel so good myself. 'night.

Posted by JD on July 13, 2010 7:37 PM